Celebrate Sept 17 as National Integration Day

Asaduddin Owaisi
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Asaduddin Owaisi

Highlights

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has suggested to Union Home Minister Amit Shah that September 17 be celebrated as National Integration Day and not as Telangana Liberation Day.

Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has suggested to Union Home Minister Amit Shah that September 17 be celebrated as National Integration Day and not as Telangana Liberation Day.

The Hyderabad MP sent a letter to Shah stating that the accession and merger of various princely States were not only about liberating the territories from autocratic rulers. "More importantly, the nationalist movement rightly saw the people of these territories as an integral part of independent India. Therefore, the phrase 'National Integration Day' may be more apposite, rather than mere liberation," he wrote.

The AIMIM president pointed out that with the merger of erstwhile Hyderabad State and various other princely states, the people of these territories were finally recognised as equal citizens of India, as a Union of States.

"The integration of these territories is also a recognition that the people of these lands had long struggled against (indirect) British rule.

Examples include Maulvi Alauddin and Turrebaz Khan in the war of Independence of 1857 and the martyred journalist Shoebullah Khan (d.1948). While the former had waged a war against the British as the Nizam's soldiers, the latter was assassinated for advocating Hyderabad's integration into the Union of India," he stated.

Owaisi also wrote that the common Hindus and Muslims of erstwhile Hyderabad state were advocates of a united India under a democratic, secular and republican government.

The struggles of the people of the erstwhile Hyderabad state against colonialism, feudalism and autocracy are a symbol of national integration rather than merely a case of liberation of a piece of land, he added. Owaisi also wrote a letter to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, suggesting that September 17 be celebrated as National Integration Day. This day must be a celebration of the struggles of people of erstwhile Hyderabad against both British colonialism as well as the feudal autocratic rule of Nizams.

On 'Razakars' or the volunteers who had supported Nizam's Army, Owaisi said that they left for Pakistan. "Those who wanted to go have gone. Those who love the country choose to remain here," he said.

The MP suggested to the Chief Minister that a befitting celebration may be organised at University Women's College, Koti. The building was once the British Residency and was subject to a daring attack by Maulvi Alauddin and Turrebaz Khan on July 17, 1857.

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